Grateful Dead 1966 Novato, CA "Intergalactic Travel" Handbill. ...

Description

Grateful Dead 1966 Novato, CA "Intergalactic Travel" Handbill. An original flyer/handout advertising "an afternoon of intergalactic travel" and "a communion with the spirits of long dead Indians" taking place on Sunday, May 22, 1966 at 12 noon (notice the "12 AM" typo). The Dead are more than just listed as an act, they get large top billing. But the records show the Dead didn't play the gig. Perhaps it was a bit too far-out even for them. But the piece is definitely full of character, and very early for the Dead, occurring in Spring '66.

Printed on orange cardstock, this first-ever Heritage offering measures 5 1/2" x 7 1/2" and grades to Good condition. From the Tim Backstrom Grateful Dead Collection. COA from Heritage Auctions.

More Information: There are pinholes in the upper two corners, and one at the bottom center squeezed perfectly into that thin orange margin. The main damage here can only be called "pock-marked"... rather unusual damage... like a car tire ran over it on a gravel road, but there's no tire track on it. So the verso resembles the surface of the moon. Both sides are very rough and uneven to the touch, but luckily almost all of this gets lost on the front in those busy super-dense graphics! But the pock-marking is very evident on the back. And there's one buried "punch-through" spot about the size of a dime, identified by the verso, where it's in the lower portion of the upper half, off to the right. Flipping the card back & forth, that supposed punch-through would be in the bottom of the letters "VI" of "Invite" and the top of the letters "TER" of "Afternoon." You can see it break a tiny bit of color in the middle of the letter "E." That punch-through is very snug from 60 years of being flat, so we didn't want to test it. Finally, all four corner tips of this fun flyer have been pushed a tiny bit.


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